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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24162130">Earth at Aphelion</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/cnd555/pseuds/cnd555'>cnd555</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Little Astronaut, Dream Big [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Blink and you will miss Sokka, Captured and Tortured, Forced Kissing, Gen, Hard of Hearing Zuko, Meant to be set in the very far future of 2170, Minor Violence, Mute-ish!Zuko, inspired by cowboy bebop</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 20:55:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,060</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24162130</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/cnd555/pseuds/cnd555</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Zuko is found floating in a space pod and nurtured back to life by a man named Mako. He spends a few years happy and then a long time after that wondering if life was still for him.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Little Astronaut, Dream Big [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1728364</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>50</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Sunrise</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Inspired by Cowboy Bebop.</p>
<p>Note: There's some violence and a scene of forced kissing in the second chapter.</p>
<p>Other than that, happy reading!</p>
    </blockquote><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A second chance at life spent in good company.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A voice. “Come on, Zuko.” A soft shake of his shoulders. “Live for me,” muffled like he’s underwater. His body; heavy as if he had forgotten to use his graviton on Jupiter, burning; as if he had flown too close to the sun.</p>
<p>He opens a bleary eye, one-half shrouded in bandages. A man peers back at him. “Good boy,” he hears faintly before he is taken underwater again.</p>
<p>%%%</p>
<p>Fever broke and half the boy he was; he’s hiding beneath a bed, afraid and confused. Pushes hands heavily down onto his chest so his heart won’t leap out of his body.</p>
<p>Where is he? <em>Who</em> is he?</p>
<p>The man is by the floor next to him, lying on his back and watching the ceiling above. “I found you floating in an Alpha-Pod near Fire Nation space,” a turn of the head to look at him and he scuttles deeper into his hideout. “This is yours.”</p>
<p>The stranger opens a palm but his hand doesn’t reach any further than the edge of the bed.</p>
<p>He stares at a pendant, inches a little closer to see the engraving.</p>
<p>
  <em>‘Zuko’</em>
</p>
<p>%%%</p>
<p>It is strange to be someone new, to wear hands that are calloused and wonder how he got them in the first place. To look in the mirror and flinch at a stranger staring back at him, all scary and scarred. To have a name; ‘Zuko’ but taste it odd on this tongue.</p>
<p>Some days there are moments good. Like rediscovering his love for dumplings. Like finding out that he could wield wooden sticks as if they were just another extension of his arm.</p>
<p>Some days there are moments bad. Like the times he’s waking up to the echoes of blood whistling out from his neck. Or the taste of gasoline on his tongue, a timid spark to wildfire singeing his skin from head to torso.</p>
<p>Stranger still, is this lingering feeling of dread but having no reason for that fear. It confuses him, hurts his head.</p>
<p>It sits festering at the pit of his stomach. And it doesn’t make him a good person either; irritable, hot-headed, angry and impatient.</p>
<p>%%%</p>
<p>“Here,” a tattered book is thrusted into his hands. Zuko reads it; <em>Universal Sign Language</em>. “We can learn together,” said with a mouth full of crickets.</p>
<p>%%%</p>
<p>He runs his hands over a circular device, presses a button and a blue spirit mask shimmers in front of him. Curious for the sake of curiosity itself, Zuko puts the mask on.</p>
<p>For the first time in a long time he can look into a mirror and not flinch at the boy staring back at him. The mask calls to him, makes him feel safer.</p>
<p><em>Can I have this? </em>He signs.</p>
<p>Clumsy fingers sign back at him, mouth moving still and sounding sad, “you shouldn’t be ashamed of how you look.” A pause. A smile, “you actually are quite handsome if I may say so myself.”</p>
<p>Zuko shakes his head; signs, <em>please. I would like this.</em></p>
<p>%%%</p>
<p>Under moonlight. Heat-field by the beach. Belly full of fish.</p>
<p>“Are you <em>sure</em> ‘fuck you’ is signed like that?” asked loudly.</p>
<p>Xeno scarlet in the sky. Zuko signs <em>‘fuck you’</em> and snickers.</p>
<p>%%%</p>
<p>A peal of laughter ripped from his broken throat. Mako thrown into a table by Madame Nima, Pai Sho pieces erupting into the air.</p>
<p><em>Beaten up by a girl, </em>Zuko signs.</p>
<p>“She ain’t no girl, Zuko!” Mako cries as he comes to slump onto their table, tail tucked between his legs. He takes a swig of lager and slams the schooner onto the table, beer shooting up and out of the glass. “She’s a <em>woman</em>,” he corrects as he stares with hearts in his eyes after Madame Nima.</p>
<p>Zuko gives him a questioning look beneath his mask. Signing, he bends his right hand into a claw and runs circles on the top of his stomach. <em>Grossssssssss.</em></p>
<p>%%%</p>
<p>A smack over the top of Mako’s head. “You’re not feeding him enough,” Madame Nima reprimands. “He’s as skinny as an Altassair worm.”</p>
<p>She places a plate of burgers and fries onto the table. “On the house. Now <em>eat,”</em> she glares as Zuko.</p>
<p>Zuko eats, if only to prevent Mako from losing any more brain cells. Sometimes he wonders if there were any there in the first place.</p>
<p>When Madame Nima leaves and stomach still empty, Zuko slides his leftovers to Mako. </p>
<p><em>I’m full, </em>he lies.</p>
<p>%%%</p>
<p>“Yours,” Mako says over their dinner of Soylent one day on the <em>Dragon.</em> Zuko gets a small box slid over to him. “Happy birthday,” said and signed to him.</p>
<p>Surprised, he opens it with clumsy fingers. Confused at first because it looked like an empty box but when he peered properly, two clear hearing aids sat loudly in its case. He looks up to a grinning Mako.</p>
<p>“They’re hearing aids. Second-hand but they should work just fine. Do you like it? You can change their colours or even make them near-invisible if you wanted!”</p>
<p>Zuko looks back down to the tiny case unable to make clear his emotions. They could barely afford any food and here he is; being made important.</p>
<p>Tears in, tears <em>in</em>, he tells himself.</p>
<p>He doesn’t know what to say and a hug would never be enough.</p>
<p>But he hugs Mako anyways.</p>
<p>%%%</p>
<p>He soon learns Mako is loud. Very loud. He shouts with every sentence, gusto and excitement stitched into every word.</p>
<p>Sometimes; Zuko turns his aids down.</p>
<p>%%%</p>
<p>When once a fire broke out, it sends Zuko spiralling. He sees no one but a Fire Nation face, golden eyes like his; young and fearful.</p>
<p>He hits the boy right on the eye, tackles him to the floor. He wants to yell at him <em>don’t kill me, don’t kill me,</em> <em>please </em>but the words don’t come out of his mouth right. Only strange grunts and pitched sounds that make no sense.</p>
<p>%%%</p>
<p>Mako; sporting a bruised eye.</p>
<p>Zuko; hidden in the <em>Dragon </em>crawl space.</p>
<p><em>You can’t help me!</em> He signs with angry fingers. <em>I’m fucked up in the head! </em></p>
<p>He digs a painful finger into his temple. There are important things he wants to say but he doesn't have the language for them. </p>
<p>Zuko tries to breathe and wants to explain that there's a blackness in his belly - that he's swallowed a sickness and now it lives in his stomach. He wants to tell Mako that he feels so uncomfortable in this skin, he shakes his hands violently to show Mako that he wants to rid of this ick. He cannot communicate, prions in his brain; feasting on him.</p>
<p>Spoilt rotten he is. Zuko wonders when he will wake up and Mako will not be there anymore.</p>
<p>(He doesn’t know then. But soon, child.</p>
<p>Much too soon.)</p>
<p>%%%</p>
<p>They’re sat on Asteroid-A501, a rock so small it is no larger than the houses stacked almost on top of one another in Earth-2. Small enough, that when you sat upon it, you can see the dip of its edge, a drop straight down into empty space if you were not so careful.</p>
<p>Zuko and Mako sat on this asteroid, space-helmet intact and watching the west-lands chase sunrise.</p>
<p>From here Zuko could pry into the universe and understand its endlessness. There is no edge here but that thought isn’t so scary. One could never tire from infinity.</p>
<p>A quest for discovery, a journey enough for two lifetimes. He could wander forever with no idea where to go and only two small truths. First; that he is on his way. Second; that if he looked back, Mako would be right there trotting on after him.</p>
<p>“You know Zuko,” Mako begins all staticky in his helmet and signing still, “I am so happy.”</p>
<p><em>You’re always happy, </em>Zuko signs<em>.</em></p>
<p>“No,” Mako gives a shake of his head. “You don’t understand.”</p>
<p>
  <em>Well explain it <strong>better</strong>.</em>
</p>
<p>“See Zuko, there is something I must do. To live for someone else. It is a humbling life.”</p>
<p>
  <em>You’re not making any sense.</em>
</p>
<p>A chuckle from the man who raised him. “You’ve grown, Zuko,” Mako says softly. “My; you have grown.” Mako was smiling to himself and Zuko watched him stare into space, sunrise finally kissing west-land.</p>
<p>It was an odd thing to say, Zuko thought. He was scarcely any bigger than himself! Not a foot longer than when Mako first met him; still tapping his foot, staring at his watch, waiting for <em>Agni</em> to gift him his growth spurt.</p>
<p>Zuko didn’t know what on Earth-2 Mako was referring to, but it must have meant a lot to him because after this moment, it had shut him up for the longest of time.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Sunset</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Zuko gets his revenge, comes out emptier then when he started and punches a ghost.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Inspired by Cowboy Bebop.</p>
<p>Note: There's a scene of forced kissing and minor violence in this chapter. Be warned.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He must survive. If only to finish what he has started. <em>Please, Agni</em>. <em>Not now</em>, he begs. He doesn’t want to die now.</p>
<p>Three fucking days he has been strapped to this fucking chair; captured, <em>starved</em>.</p>
<p>He is so close; he is so <em>fucking</em> close.</p>
<p>All this seething hatred, this relentless anxiety dripping in his blood. It should all fuel him, should give him strength and courage to finish this. He should be able to get himself up, he should. He <em>must.</em></p>
<p>But he is so very tired.</p>
<p>And what a fucking coward to even consider that. He should be ashamed. He is.</p>
<p>Zuko yanks at his handcuffs in frustration and is met with the same fucking consequence, electricity thrums through his body. He could only take so much, twisting his wrists ‘til they bled before he is lead to complacency again. Three fucking days of the same shit over and over and never learning anything new.</p>
<p>You’re a dishonour to the <em>Dragon</em> name.</p>
<p>He panics at the thought, breath laboured and wheezing and the bag over his head only exacerbates his desperation even more. Zuko writhes in the chair, the pain a background to the anxiety he is experiencing. He hacks a cough, spluttering beginnings of words he doesn’t even know he wanted to say.</p>
<p>But this was nothing new. He knew this – knows of this. He’s done the whole self-deprecation, panic attack, electric shock spiel ten times over and it’s all the fucking same. The ending is all the same.  </p>
<p>Zuko barks out a bitter laugh. He never learns, how he never learns.</p>
<p>Metal screeches across the floor, rust hinges squeaking at the torque. Someone is coming. He cannot hear their footsteps, but the walls are vibrating. The bag is lifted off his head and the light is still so bright to his swollen eyes.</p>
<p>He’s heavily bruised, blood crusts on his lips and the sides of his eyes. Sweat and dirt, bile and drool all over him but they are nothing compared to the filth that stood before him.</p>
<p>“I’m getting bored, Zuko,” Sato says. A dagger dancing between his fingers. “I think today might be your lucky day, boy.”</p>
<p>Sato bends down to Zuko’s level, sets both hands on the side of the chair and grins at him with a wide white set of shark teeth.</p>
<p>Perfect, Zuko thinks. He spits on Sato.</p>
<p>Mucus ridden, blood rotten saliva run down from Sato’s eye to his cheek and it is time for Zuko to offer a leering grin. He gets a slap for his efforts. Worth it. Always.</p>
<p>“You’re such a fucker,” Sato says as he wipes at his face. “But then again, so was Mako. Oh, how he fucking screamed and begged for his life.”</p>
<p>Zuko pulls at his restraints and gets a jolt of electricity through him but he is so filled with rage he pushes forward, twist his wrist so much that the metal of the cuffs cut deeper into his already broken skin.</p>
<p>His chest hurts. Mako’s death open and raw all over again; more awful than that of the trenches on his wrists. “<em>Don’t you…” </em>he takes a shaky breath, his throat constricting. “<em>Dare – fucking,”</em> the rest of what he tries to say gets stuck in his throat. Zuko wheezes. Please, <em>Agni</em>, let him at least finish this sentence.</p>
<p>Oh.</p>
<p>If only.</p>
<p>Sato releases a wild laughter that echoes around the walls of Zuko’s cell. The metal rings and vibrates. “Fuck, Zuko. I knew you were pathetic but not to this level. Should have known Mako was the type to raise such a weakling.”</p>
<p>Sato pulls another chair from a wall to set it directly in front of Zuko. It scapes so loudly he winces.</p>
<p>Cross legged, Sato contemplates, “hm. Now, how would I like to kill you?” He leans forward and puts the blade to Zuko’s neck. “I always loved slitting someone’s throat, to listen to the song of their last breath. That beautiful look of fear in their desperate eyes,” Sato sighs and sits back further in his chair. “But looks like someone has already made their mark on you, didn’t they? How many people have touched you before me, hm?”</p>
<p>Sato traces the scar across his neck and Zuko cannot help but jerk in his chair. Electricity runs through him again and he groans.</p>
<p>Sato grins, “my, my. What a pretty thing you are,” he cups Zuko’s cheek and Zuko flinches. “I have always wondered who was behind Mako’s shadow. He buy you from The Den?”</p>
<p><em>“Fuck</em>,” Zuko forces out. He feels his throat quiver, quickly coerces, “<em>you</em>,” out before his body betrays him.</p>
<p>“A pretty face with a pretty mouth. Why do you wear that mask, Zuko? I thought Mako wanted to hide your identity, but now I think otherwise.”</p>
<p>Sato runs the tips of his fingers over the broken skin under Zuko’s left eye, lets his hand drift down to the scarred skin on his neck. Zuko shivers. “Are you ashamed of this mark, Zuko? Hm…” He stares into Zuko’s eyes, wouldn’t let go of his gaze.</p>
<p>“Who tried to kill you before me…?” Sato asks, almost lost in thought. “Might just shoot you in the temple,” Sato touches the skin where he wants to rest his gun. “Don’t want to ruin that lovely face of yours.”</p>
<p>Sato takes a handkerchief, wipes at Zuko’s mouth and kisses him. He is stunned into stillness and he gasps aloud when Sato bites him on his lip; hard enough for Zuko to bleed.</p>
<p>He writhers around uselessly and Sato laughs, grabs at his chin to still him, lips locked on his. Sato takes the dagger and digs it into Zuko’s abdomen.<em> Twists.</em></p>
<p>He makes a sort of gurgling, strained noise from the back of his throat. It’s all he can do while Sato mockingly laughs at him. The knife digs further in and he cannot even scream properly, the cries he makes pitiful and pitchy.</p>
<p>He tries to remember his breaths; a practice he was taught from another life.</p>
<p>Inhale and exhale.</p>
<p>Rage and fear.</p>
<p>Always fear.</p>
<p>He needs this revenge, needs it to pay back all that he owed. He never got to say thank you, never had the chance to tell Mako that he was so grateful; that all his kindness never went unnoticed. </p>
<p>He wanted to tell him that the limitless of space wasn’t so overwhelming with his laughter around.</p>
<p>If he can just get these cuffs off. Through the pain of the current running through him, Zuko pushes forward; determined. There’s sweat and now blissful blood that leaks from his wrist. It lubricates his hands. He breaks his thumb, gets a hand free and <em>lunges</em>.</p>
<p>%%%</p>
<p>A bloody pale face.</p>
<p>Rusted red hands. Coalescence of his blood, your blood and mine.</p>
<p>His grunts and cries echo in the long-darkened corridor. Zuko turns to look back. The eyes stare back at him and he scrambles into a wall. He cannot remember but these hands sure did slit all their throats. The whistling haunts him, their blood stinging his eyes. Zuko bites at his hands to stop himself from making the worst of sounds, squeezes his eyes shut. Breathe, breathe.</p>
<p>He cries silently. Cries like the first time he did when he had rested his hands on Mako’s still heart. Small and hurt, the silent tears package pain in a neat little box. Who could have guess that finally, finally it is over.</p>
<p>Exhausted and injured, he decides he might just like to die in this hallway. He’s done it. He’s finished what he has started and it is now time to rest.</p>
<p>
  <em>I hope you’re proud of me.</em>
</p>
<p>%%%</p>
<p>Mako’s voice in his head. “Come on, Zuko.” A soft shake of his shoulders. “Live for me.”</p>
<p>It was another time. Said to him when he was younger. Someone is thumping at his chest.</p>
<p>He jerks awake. Not here. He won’t die here.</p>
<p>%%%</p>
<p>He stumbles into sunlight. Sleeps beneath the stars for two whole days.</p>
<p>Picks himself up.</p>
<p>Survives.</p>
<p>%%%</p>
<p>Dark days ahead. He’d thought he’d feel…</p>
<p>He’d thought…</p>
<p>%%%</p>
<p>A bloody pale face in the shadows.</p>
<p>Rusted red sunken into his hands. No matter how many times he washes he cannot rid of this skin.</p>
<p>The eyes stare empty back at him.</p>
<p>He had thought he’d be happy.</p>
<p>%%%</p>
<p>Sat on Asteroid-A501. Watching the west-land chase sunset.</p>
<p>If he just so turned a little, space seemed so septic with emptiness it scared him. Nothing living thrives here.</p>
<p>He feels as small as Asteroid-A501, sitting beside all these overwhelming large celestial objects.</p>
<p>Zuko holds his heavy hands over his chest; so deep in fear that there is no one. That if he screamed into this vastness, not an echo would return to him.</p>
<p>He knows for sure that there is nobody else here. He tumbles to his knees and shouts but he couldn’t even do that right. Space is a blackhole; it swallows everything. Like light, like time and distance, like love. In it; everything sank.</p>
<p>The sun forgoing west-land.</p>
<p>It is a lonesome place; the land of tears.</p>
<p>%%%</p>
<p>Someone is thumping at his chest. He had thought he’d be happy. A pale face in the shadows. Whistling blood. Empty eyes staring dead back at him. Sato kissing him.</p>
<p>He pushes Sato away and Zuko swipes at him, gets a landing straight in the jaw. Sato goes crumbling down and Zuko lunges towards the body on the floor.</p>
<p>“<em>Zuko!”</em> He hears. “<em>Stop.”</em></p>
<p>Sokka’s voice. </p>
<p>He has fistfuls of Sokka’s shirt.</p>
<p>Panting he chokes, “<em>Sokka,” </em>broken and raw.</p>
<p>“Zuko,” Sokka repeats and touches a shaking hand to his flushed cheek. “It was just a bad dream.”</p>
<p>A bad dream…</p>
<p>They tell him this is all a dream.</p>
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